The Bush Defense

Michael Pollak mpollak at panix.com
Sat Jan 11 11:18:00 PST 2003


On Sat, 11 Jan 2003, Jordan Hayes wrote:


> Medicare is presently 1.45% (no limit), so that's $580; FICA is 6.2%
> (only on first $87,000 in 2003), so that's $2,480 or a total of $3,060
> on $40,000.

Just to be sure I've got this clear -- these are not considered forms of payroll tax, and are paid on top of the 15.3% Max mentioned? So the $40,000 couple in Bush's example is paying 15.3 + 1.5 + 6.2 = 23% of its income in federal taxes that won't be touched by this proposal, and 2.5% of its income in taxes that will?

This on-purpose deceptive slippage between taxes people pay on income and "income taxes" in the technical sense is a great gag ;o) Lives there the democrat who can hammer it home instead of sounding like he's reading from accounting footnotes?

I know Wall Street Journal reporters who don't comprehend the distinction. (And I mean know in the personal sense, not as a reader. And these were smart reporters on the international and political beats.) Offhand, I'd say 90% of the people in the country don't understand the importance of this distinction. And even those of us that have heard about it often forget when it counts -- like when I originally started this thread wondering what the catch was.

One of the real powers of the big lie is that it often seems half-convincing even after you've seen through it because you still can't help feeling that everybody can't be wrong if it's so obvious.

Michael



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list